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On this episode of the podcast today, let's talk all things social media marketing, love it or hate it. It's a cornerstone of digital marketing. And if you don't have a clear and a strong strategy, it has the potential to impact your business growth. And that's why here on the podcast today, and inside the Regional Business Women's membership this month, Marie Sortino, who you may know as the social secret is our featured guest. Today, we're going to dive into the social media landscape, how it's changed, and Marie is going to be sharing some hot tips for effective social media strategies in 2024. This is the shaysing business podcast, where every week I'll explore topics and have real conversations around what it's like to run a regional business, the advantages and the unique challenges. I'm Donna Han, a seasoned regional business owner, and certified high performance business coach. I'm here to make training and professional development easily accessible for regional business women everywhere. So join me and guest experts as we share tools and insights to elevate your business, boost your mindset, and ensure that you never feel alone on this journey. No matter where you live. I'm fired up and I'm here to educate you on what it truly takes to grow your business and your mindset beyond what you thought possible. So hello, and welcome to the shoes in business podcast. It's done a hand here and today I'm joined by Marie Sortino the brains behind the social media profile the social secret. Before we dive in and I introduce you to Marie, I need to tell you something that I feel is super exciting. So this Friday, in celebration of International Women's Day, I am starting a very special launch promoting the Regional Business Women's membership. So you can join the membership anytime door's always open, the doors always open. However, I'm offering a stack of extra bonuses when you join during the launch period starting on the fifth of March. How it works is that early birds who jump into the membership will get extra bonuses, the longer you wait to join, the less bonuses you'll get. So you want to make sure that you are on the early bird waitlist, I'll be sending out some exclusive bonuses to those people who are on that early bird waitlist. And to get on it you need to go to donor hand.com forward slash early bird. The other reason why you want to join during this launch is because it's the last time I'm offering the founding members rate. So as of the 23rd of March prices to join the membership are going up. So founding members means that you join at the low rate of $97 a month it's fixed for your lifetime of the membership. So if you join before the 23rd, you get the lowest price, and it will never change for you even when I put the price up in the future. So it's never been a better time to join. Basically, that's my message for you. Before we kick into the podcast get on that earlybird waitlist, make sure you don't miss out on these extra bonuses and become a founding member. So Donna han.com forward slash earlybird. So now, I'm going to introduce you to the fabulous Marie the face the brains the founder behind the social secret. So Maria has been a wealth of experience and knowledge when it comes to making your business stand out on socials. Having spent 20 years in the marketing space, Marie has worked with large corporate organizations as well as small business owners just like you. And as an award winning social media strategist, Marie helps business owners in a number of different ways, including one on one training and workshops, real filming days, which sounds so much fun. And more recently, she has launched a course to show others who want to be a social media manager how to do that effectively. She's got some incredible products available for you low cost options aimed at helping you to really effectively manage your own social media pages. She's also a mom of two. So she gets it you know, it's tough running a business, sometimes juggling all the things that we do, including social media. So Marie is joining us today here on the podcast. She's also a guest facilitator inside the Regional Business Women's membership, which I'm so excited and grateful for. So welcome to the show, Marie.
4:10
Thank you. I'm so excited to be here. Thanks for having me. I love talking about social media. Yes,
4:15
amazing. So let's start. Can you tell us a little bit more about the social secret like you've got an Instagram account of like 10 and a half 1000 people, you're a real specialists, you've got so much knowledge in social media management. So how did it all start for you? Yes. So
4:34
it started long before Rails. It started about seven years ago. And I was working as I was actually a trainer in a Diploma of marketing. So I was training people on how to effectively implement marketing strategies and social media was part of that. And what I found was, there is no one size fits all strategy when it comes to social media. Of course, there are like the core bits of, you know, knowledge that you need to have around marketing that will not change regardless of the landscape in which you use. But I was talking to people, you know, in a room about a strategy, and I realized that hang on a minute, this is not actually going to work for every single person in the room, it needs to be a lot more tailored, they need to be talking about different things. So I thought, I think I can do this better if I branch out on my own, and I tailor one to one training for people. So that's essentially how it started. And my first sort of services, were just training services, one on one with business owners, we would look at their page create a strategy based on their business. And what I found was happening is that people would go through this training, and I'd be watching their socials. And I would say all of these amazing bits of content go up. And then about a month to maybe six to eight weeks later, there was the slow decline, because Sonas are busy, right? Yeah. And there's this added pressure of, Oh, am I doing it right? Do I actually know what I'm doing? Why am I not getting likes on this post? And lots of sort of judgment around that. And then I get phone calls can't do you think that you could manage my page instead. So then I started to offer social media management services as well. And that, to this day continues, I still do the one to one training for people that want to learn how to do it themselves. I also offer social media management. And then we kind of fast forward to maybe three years ago, and we had the introduction of reels. And look, it's not a secret that video content was always going to be really super important. And with the rise of YouTube, like if you want to learn how to do anything, you just YouTube video. So video content is more easily consumed. But again, business owners hit this roadblock with not understanding it, not knowing what they need to do how they need to say it, but then they're also grappling with this, oh, my God, my face needs to be in front of the camera. And I don't know, I need to be guided by that. I don't have the confidence. My hair's not done, my makeups not done. My teeth aren't wide enough. I don't on what weight that I want to be like all these things, all the things. And I just want to highlight here also, that we all have a little bit of the self worth sort of image conscious thing going on, right? But at the end of the day, how successful do you want to be as a business owner, because I do think showing up on your socials is exceptionally important. So it does take time. You may need to film you know, maybe a few times at first. But if you don't pop up that first real How can you get to your 20th or 21st. So you need to take baby steps. But video content is definitely something that now we offer too. And we are not videographers at the social secret. We are social media strategists. So what that means is we are creative by nature. So putting together a video is easy, but we do it in a way that we know is going to work for social media. Yeah, and so that's yeah, I mean, that's, that's the social secret in a nutshell. I started from the ground up. So I can also appreciate that small business owners don't always have the budget to be able to spend this money to get someone to come and film reels or to get their social media pages managed, or to have even a one on one. So that's when, probably December of last year, I finally launched my first product, which is basically a toolkit that teaches you, it guides you, it walks you through everything that you need to do to maximize your potential on social media. But the clincher here is that it is low cost because I know how difficult it can be and it's unachievable for me to say, Okay, you need to pay me, you know, $250 for an hour of my time, so be conscious of still being able to help people who are just starting out who have very limited budgets that can't afford those services, also, so yeah, it's amazing. That was me when I started, right. You know how it is to set up a business. You've got the website, you've got domain names, you've got business registrations, you've got all of the things right. Yeah, very expensive to do. So my services are there to help those with Lean muted budget, but once they're kind of in business for a little while and making some money if they did want to hand over portions of their social media management or investigate some one on one training, there's those options or Yeah,
10:13
fantastic thing. And so the landscape of social media in the time that you have been in business with the social secret, there's been a lot of shifts there, right. And you've mentioned video is massive is one of them. It's kind of exploded, hasn't it? And I think particularly like, I remember when MySpace that showing my age, but when MySpace is around, and it was like, What is this thing? And you know, you've got to put your pitch there and do all these things. And then it's just evolved, like, and now Instagram has exploded like, and we're both there's so many different platforms as well, now that there is to choose from to go, which one is right for my business? Instagram is the place that you play in the most Yes, yeah. And reels is one of your calling cards. It's one of the things that you're most known for. So can we talk about the strategy behind reels for business owners? Who were there? Or what's the ecosystem that kind of all plays into that? You know, who's consuming them? Let's talk about that. Because I think that that's a really good topic.
11:19
Yeah, absolutely. So as you're aware, or as I also mentioned earlier, you know, YouTube is probably the first most well known video platform ever. And so we've always known or always suspected that video content was going to become important at some stage, then we had interstage, left tick tock, right, kind of shook things up, or not kind of It shook things up, right. And Instagram got scared. They saw that this video only was only videos at the time, when it first launched, this platform was introduced, and it was going gangbusters. So people were leaving the Instagram platform and they were going across to us tick tock, now can still appreciate that tick tock does have a certain demographic, but it is changing rapidly. So Instagram were then like, well, we don't want to be left behind, we actually need to start focusing more on video content. And so reels is actually first known as clips. And then they change to the name, but reels was introduced sort of about three and a half, almost four years ago. And all of a sudden, we saw people do things differently on social media. Yeah, they, we saw them show up on camera, we saw them doing these amazing like trending magic tricks, right? Like we jump and all of a sudden, you'd be in a different theater, you click your fingers, and something amazing would happen and you know, all these fun stuff. But as a mom in her mid 40s, that is certainly not in her 20s It can be daunting to be up against people that are like that, right? So when it comes down to it, video content is super important, but don't lose who you are, you need to continue to make it authentic to you and to your audience. So when it comes to real, there's a few things that we need to consider. Point number one is your hook. So that first 1.3 to three seconds, what are you doing in that time to capture the attention of your audience? Because one other thing about social media in general is that there are more like more than ever, people are consuming it right? So it is flooded. You have Instagram and you scroll, you need to make people stop, okay, they need to stop in their tracks and go what is this about? So you have 1.3 to three seconds according to research to do that. So it is about connection. And that is like my number one social media tip, always and forever in a day. And I remember I am not too long ago found a very old booklet that I put together at the very start of my business that was like social media tips. And in that booklet the tips that existed they still exist today. Nothing has changed. Number one thing on that list is know who you are talking to who is your target audience, because if you are not creating content, whether it's video content, whether it's a static post, whether it's a carousel, whether it's a tick tock it doesn't matter what it is, if you're not nailing that part and don't have a true pro But understanding of who you are targeting everything that comes after that is lost. Yep. 100% agree probably the biggest mistake I see business owners make, because I will say to someone who's your target audience, and I'll go or anyone, like it could be, you know, 18 year old, it could be a 60 year old, anyone that wants to buy my product. Okay, well, there's your first mistake. So I can also appreciate that people do have different target audiences to particularly, you know, product based businesses might be a retailer, but then they might be a wholesaler. And then they might, you know, like, there's different audiences, depending on your business. And that's also where I would say, which people probably don't want to hear. But perhaps you need more than one platform to then differentiate between your audiences, too. So I think I kind of deviated a little bit from your initial question, but
15:51
no, that's okay. No, and I think it's all really relevant. Everything that you've said, super relevant, is, you know, in the ecosystem of building out, like, where to Rails fit within that strategy, because it's really isn't the only thing, right? There's not that yeah,
16:08
I yeah, I just think that if, depending what platform you're using, it could be LinkedIn, it could be Instagram, could be Tick, tock could be Facebook, whatever it is, I just think you need to look at the platform, look at what that platform offers, terms of the features, and just use what is available. So I'm not saying every post needs to be a real, it certainly doesn't. But you do need to start to include it in your strategy. And the easiest way of doing that is by starting to talk about things that you get asked all the time. So it's no different to your normal posting, you're just presenting it in a different way. Yeah, that's important. Yeah.
16:51
And as far as creating a really effective reel, is there any tips that you'd suggest for business owners when they're making a reel to get the reach and the engagement because reels if I understand this correctly, reels are primarily used to build awareness to bring new people into your audience. And I know that also entertaining, like, I love watching reels of people that I already follow. But you know, that is one way to grow your followers is by using a reel, but what is the if, like, what tips would you give to make it effective in doing that? Yeah,
17:28
so as I highlighted earlier, that first 1.3 to three seconds, that is vital. So what I noticed all the time, is that business owners will get in front of the video, or they'll be you know, filming something. And there's this long winded introduction. Hi, Marie here from the social secret. How are you going today? Blah, blah, blah. Anyway, today, and then you launch into what it is that you wanted to talk about?
17:55
Yeah. Or it's like, a long pause, where they're just like, if they're doing a live especially like, I'm just gonna wait a couple of seconds for people. I'm like, see? Out?
18:05
Correct, because if you then go on to post that live to your feed, so it sits there, they're not watching it live. That's, I mean, yep. So obviously, video content as well. Just launch straight into it. Because chances are what you've got, like 30, or 40, people joining you on a live, you then have the potential for hundreds to be watching it later. But the first minute and a half, you're spending waiting for people to join your life and you can't edit that it go eat posts like that. So when you're in a live start with, we're on a live today to discuss blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So people automatically know what they're going to expect. reels are exactly the same. What are people expecting? tell them up front, so that they know. And they can resonate with what it means that you're talking about to tell them? Yes, keep watching. Okay, so that hook is really, really important. Now the second part to a reel, or to alive or to any sort of video content is what we call the like the value so what is it actually that you're talking about? So, you know, your hook could be three ways to enhance your Instagram bio. So it could be something that I'm doing right? So I'll go I've got three ways to enhance your Instagram bio, you need to watch this, okay? Or watch? Then what are the three things that's the value Casey Cook, you've got the value which is the teaching element, or you know, expanding a little bit maybe you're telling a customer story, you're leading people on a journey. You're you're explaining of the features or the benefits of selling a particular product or services, that's the value, then the final part of your video content should be a call to action. So as a result of watching this video, what do you want people to do? And that call to action should be in the real itself. Okay, don't worry about Putting it in the caption because what if they don't read the caption? Want them watching the real knowing what action they need to take. And maybe the call to action is. And it's one that I don't traditionally like using, but it could be, what further information read the caption, but it could also be tagged a friend, it could be saved this post for future reference. It could be share this with a friend that needs to know this, that could be asking a question Has this happened to you. But just make sure that there's always some sort of call to action in the real and then what I try and do sometimes I test the waters. So I'll put a particular call to action in the reel. But then I'll put a different call to action in the caption and depending on how people comment, I know where that where I've got them. Have they watched the reel? And they're answering that? Or have they read the caption as well. And they're answering that? Yeah, there is no perfect way of ensuring success when it comes to a real
21:05
as well in business. Right.
21:07
It's the thing. Yeah, yeah.
21:11
So I think just always keep an open mind when it comes to everything. We are not getting the reach and the engagement that we used to on any social media content, not just content. And if I go back and have a look at the very first real ideas versus the reels that I'm doing now, they are worlds apart. So
21:32
what do you think that is?
21:34
I just think we didn't know what we were doing. Number one, we've learned a lot along the way. There were less people using Rails when I first I think my first deal was the day Rails was introduced. I was like what this new thing, okay, I'm gonna jump on and tell people that they need to. Yeah, and through education, through new apps that have come out that help you to produce different videos, through features within the social media platforms themselves that help you to produce videos, it's all changed. But another tip that I have for you is create what we call dynamic footage. Because we know if we're sitting there, and there's someone talking to camera or watching something, and it is like not stale, but it's not moving. If it's just
22:27
going to dadgummit kind of thing. Yeah. That's the word
22:31
I was looking for. Yeah, you've got more of a chance of people scrolling. So I normally say have the scene change every two to three seconds. And that's where transitions when they were like a mass. Yeah, they were huge. Yeah, that's what that's all it was all it was, was this dynamic way of recapturing your audience's attention again, saying, Oh, what was that, like? Yeah. And it kept them watching. So you don't necessarily need to do a transition. If you don't like dancing, don't dance, if you don't like pointing don't point. But you could be talking to camera, and then it could cut to something else. So then it could zoom in a little bit on you. So don't be afraid of separating everything out into bite sized pieces, and then putting it together at the end. Yeah. And you know, what I like to tell people as well I use like a shopping center analogy is particularly because women like just resonate with this. And so when you're thinking about your shopping experience, and let's pretend International Women's Day is here, like it's, you know, this week, it's coming up. So you're gonna go and buy a dress for International Women's Day for a luncheon that you're going to see go to the shops with that intent, I'm going to buy a dress, what is going to make you stop to buy the dress, as you're walking through all of those shops. Sometimes it is the music that might be blaring from the shop and you go oh, yeah, that's a cool song. And you'll turn your head to have a look at air it's playing from sometimes it's the window and what is actually being presented yet. So it could be just look really nice. Sometimes it's this huge 50% off sale today only that captures your attention. So reels are no different. Let's think about it like a shopping center experience. Maybe it's the song that we use that captures the attention. Maybe it's the text that we use that captures the attention. Maybe it's just the look and the feel of what it is that's been presented that captures your attention. So just think about those things. And then finally, my last little tip, and this is social media in general. And I've already highlighted it it's not about you. It's not about us and our business at the end of the day people you know pardon excuse the French but they don't give a shit about us and our business. All they care about is how your business He's going to help them. So that's stuff that we need to be talking about. Yeah.
25:04
Love that. All of those points bang on. Like, that's how I see it too. And I love the shopping center analogy. That's so clever. Yeah.
25:13
on that. I love it. On that note. Shopping. Yeah, I actually do need a new dress for International Women's.
25:22
Tell me about trending audio is Do you think that this is a thing I see, like different people out there going. Training audio is not a thing. It's not going to do anything for your reels other people saying like get on this trending audio. Now it's about to blow up. What's your take on that?
25:38
I'm very much like, no BS type of girls. So what you see is what you get. And if you meet me in real life, I am how I present myself in every aspect of like socials or podcasts, whatever it is. So we've trending audio. Again, the one thing that you need to be mindful of is this song going to resonate with my audience trending or not trending, because if you are a professional services organization, and you like to maintain this professionalism throughout everything that you do, but like a Nicki Minaj song is trending, you're not going to use it? Or if you do, it's not going to resonate with your audience, right. So trending or not, I really think first and foremost, you need to think about who your audience sees. It does annoy me when social media strategists get on reels and say, trending. Yeah, yeah. You know, I'm predicting that in the next week, this is going to go bananas. Just because someone else has produced a reel with a trending audio and it's gone off does not mean that if you use that same trending audio, the same thing is going to happen. So there is speculation that with trending audios, because it's a sound that people are really resonating with that they're more likely to stop and watch what you've done with that. Yeah, but it can also bite you in the butt. Because if it's towards the end of the trend, and perhaps you know, 1 million people have used that particular song. Maybe people are sick and tired of hearing it, and they might continue to scroll. So yes, use it. If it resonates with your audience, if you feel like you can really connect the song to a real thought. But if you want to use the Backstreet Boys use the Backstreet Boys. Were they trending or not? Yes. So just Yeah, think
27:46
about that. Yeah, I think it's a really valid point. The other question I had around captions, because you mentioned like, you know, what you hook in there? Yep. You know, a lot of people are doing like, read the captions. I'm seeing that everywhere. And I think you know, too, I've seen, I love following your posts and your content. And you do talk a lot about like making your content conversational, and, you know, as if having a conversation with your bestie about some hot gossip, that's, you know, you're spreading it that way. But the length of the captions, right for me, my conversational is like, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and then I go, Oh, my goodness, that is so long, who is even going to read that? So, you know, I'd be really interested to know, your take on that, like, you know, do we have a variety of long form captions, and then really short, sharp, like to the point, snap, you know, those kinds of ones. What are your thoughts? What are your thoughts around that?
28:45
So I think again, if we go back to that hook, and you will use text as your hook, some short, sharp statement, that tells people what to expect. So again, going off the back of the example, I gave you, three things, your Instagram bio needs, okay, and we've got that. So, reels are not meant to be read, like you don't put up like again, when reels were first introduced, I used to see people just because they were like, Oh, well, this is a video and I don't want to get my face in front of the camera. So they put up a reel with some like, I don't know, background of a beach or something. And then you've got to read it. It's just a chunk of text. That's not the purpose of it. Unless you are talking to camera. In that instance, you should always caption what it is that you are saying. So the last lot of research I looked at, indicated there something like 80 or 82% of people when they first scroll, watch those few seconds of your video with no sound. And think about your audience like my audience are mums in business. predominantly, I, of course, I work with everybody outside of that, too. But predominantly, they're my people. And so you think about it, sometimes they're just laying in bed and it's 10 o'clock at night, and they're scrolling. Or maybe they're at another work, maybe, you know, Instagram business, or their own businesses a little side hustle. And they like scrolling through, I still want people to be able to know what I'm talking about, even if the sound is not on. So that goes with anything, even with just using bits of text. Yeah, you should watch your reels back with no sound, do they get the same information as not watching it? Like as much as they do watching it with sound? So? Yeah, I think if you're using sort of text to come in short, sharp statements to add value. If it's talking to camera, yes, absolutely need to caption it. through Instagram, you can caption it yourself. Alternatively, there's so many apps out there where you just upload your video and yeah, caption auto Yeah,
31:04
and I do use captions all the time, particularly in my stories, because I am that person that scrolls through at night time in bed sometimes or you know, you don't necessarily want to have your sound on in regards to the copyright that goes along as a caption that sits into your posts or sits into your reels or whatever it is that you're creating. Is this, like tips around that as far as length goes? Like, keep those short? You don't have the conversation in there? Like because there's so many.
31:34
There is so many different ways to do it. So yeah, I think just keeping it short, simple, direct to the point is what work best. Let like, I know, we may or may not talk about this, but AI has obviously made a big impact. And it's in its infancy as well. So I just think about the future and go Well, what is this stuff going to be capable of? And so even utilize something like maybe chat GPT and brain dump into there and sake from this create, for short, sharp statements of no more than 15 words that I can use to describe this, and then dump all that information? Yes.
32:22
Yeah, right. Resource chat. GPT is a great resource. talk a lot about that with my clients as well. Yeah, even like I use later as my scheduling tool. And they've got a new AI in there as well. So I'll I'll you know, cut and paste what I've created as my caption as in the copyright. And then I've been experimenting with like, you know, I'll click that and see what their suggestion they pump out like three different options. And it's always interesting. Half the time I'm like, No, that doesn't sound like we I'd never bloody say that. But you know, if you can tweak it so that it does it's worthwhile experimenting with it.
32:57
And a tip on that, actually, for those that might be using maybe, I'm not sure I haven't experimented with latest AI. But if you are using something like chat GPT about your business, always use this previous conversation that you've had, yeah, okay, don't start a new chat with every question that you've got to ask. So when I go into chat, GPT the menu on the left, it shows you all of the previous chats that you've had, and I've got one for each of my clients. And the reason for that is because through this technology is recalling and remembering the way your your writing terms that you're using how like how you're explaining things, and over time, it will actually change and start to adopt your tone of voice up those sorts of things, too. So it
33:48
100% does. And I've got a series of prompts that I use that I share with my clients as well. That to get it as close to your brand tone and voice as quickly as possible. And it's yeah, it's definitely worthwhile exploring. When we come back from break, I would love to ask you about hashtags like are they still a thing? How do we use them? How do we find them? What do we do with them be amazing if we can have a chat about that. If you want to grow your regional business, your brand needs to stand out. And whilst listening to this podcast will help you to learn some of the ways you can do that. What's going to help you even more is taking action. So I've got a free three day live coaching and training that will triple the impact of your brand, and your marketing to grow your business. It's called biz growth accelerator. Inside my free three day training and coaching accelerator, I'll teach you the three most important steps that most business owners don't do. And I'll show you how you can stand out from your competition. Spend an hour with me each day for three days and I'll share step by step the framework that has tripled my marketing impact and as helps so many of my clients, I will show you how to stop struggling when it comes to marketing, and to break free from the frustration and instead, lay the foundation for magnetizing brand strategy that will triple your marketing impact, attract your ideal customers, and increase your income by using just three simple core action steps. So wherever you are on your business journey, this is for you. We kick off on Tuesday, the 12th of March, go to www dot done a hand up comm forward slash biz growth to register for free. The link is in the show notes. Make sure you go ahead and register for this incredible free training and coaching with me, Donna han.com, forward slash biz growth register now. Let's talk about hashtags. I have got a confession to make Marie, I don't really I use hashtags. But I actually don't have a strategy with them. I'm like, I don't know what I'm doing here. I pick a bunch of things that I think would be good. And I think that's personally because as a consumer, I don't use hashtags to search ever. It's just not something that I do. So maybe that's why, but tell me like educating you. How do you identify a set of hashtags? Or how often should you change them? Yeah,
36:23
you should change the for every post is the what I mean, I do think hashtags are changing and evolving. And that perhaps we are moving away from the US that's key words are becoming a lot more important. So once upon a time, we would look up a hashtag, we'd look up you know, I don't know, hashtag, regional, mum's in business or regional women in business. And we would say, Well, how many posts have come like, have come up with people using that particular hashtag. But now we can just use keywords, and we could just type regional women in business, and it would still give us the same kind of response. So we're moving away a little bit from hashtags. Do I still use them? Hell, yeah, I do like just in case, but because I am a local rapper of hashtags. Yeah, I do use them for research. So all for example, I might hashtag Instagram tips and tricks. Yes. Just to see what other people talking about at the moment? Is there anything that I can do better? And that's what I always like, alright, what are they saying? How can I say it better? How can I tweak it to make it more me those sorts of things. So hashtags are super important. Still, I feel, but you need to make them relevant to that particular post. Okay. So if on your social media page, you are talking about lots of different things, maybe it's a client story, or maybe it's things about you, or maybe it's a testimonial, or maybe it's a tip or a trick, like I think you really just need to align your hashtags, depending on what it is that you're talking about. I don't think that you need to use many. In fact, it probably be quite difficult to come up with 30 hashtags for what it is that you're talking about. So if I was to speak about, and I do this a little bit, I'm in like this, my woowoo area era, I suppose you would call
38:27
it me too. I would I'm there with you. It's time. Yeah. So
38:32
like, you know, meditation and the importance of like grounding, and like, intuition and gratitude. That's all really important to me. So that shows up on my socials. Now, if I'm ever talking about that, I would never hashtag Instagram coach, because it's got no relevance to what I'm actually talking about in that post. But then the next day, I might give you three reasons why what like three tips for your Instagram bio, then I would use hashtag Instagram tips and tricks, because it's directly related to what it is I'm talking about.
39:04
Yeah. Yeah, it makes total sense. Yeah, absolutely. And the other thing, I think, like just summarizing everything you've shared today, there's so much here is about really understanding your strategy and your social media content planning. Because everything that you've talked about, including the hashtags, you know, the we need to be planning out, what's the themes that we're kind of running to, and then making sure that it all kind of ties into one another? It makes sense, right? And you have got some really great social content planning tools that you you mentioned the toolkit, I think at the
39:44
end, yeah. Helpful. It's called the ultimate social media planning toolkit. So it is a lot to say. But it is there is a lot of value in it. So yeah, and it goes through all of that. So if you were just starting all social media page or maybe you've been winging it, and you're just like, I don't even know what I'm doing something like this toolkit is probably perfect, because we take it right back to the start. There's that customer understanding who your customer is, and building an avatar, we talk about content pillars, and why it's important to have them and some examples of of those pillars, there's ideas for content, there's a monthly calendar in there, there's analytical tools. So behind every month, there is also a training component to it. So it's like 60, something pages of absolute pure gold. Amazing. Like 27 bucks, like, you know, it's a no brainer, like, how many times do we jump on social media and buy courses, and then never look at them again. So I really have put my heart and soul into this, because I wanted to create something number one that everybody could afford, but number two was actually going to be valuable. And the feedback has been really phenomenal, which is Yeah,
41:07
and I love that. And as you said before, you're no BS kind of person. So you know, packing it full of that value and putting a price tag on it, that's going to be affordable for people. I just love that. Yeah. And you know, just the value that you've shared here alone in this podcast, and the value that you're sharing in the membership as part of the masterclass, I want to talk about that quickly. Because that's so exciting. So you're going to be in the master class. At the time of recording this, we haven't actually done the master class yet. But you've told me what you're going to be putting in it. So I can't wait. This is going to be helping the members who are coming along to stand out amongst the crowd. You know how to stop people in their tracks to read your post or watch your videos, lots of tips and tricks in addition to what you've shared here. I'm really excited for that. Is there anything else you want to share? About what you're going to be talking about? Yeah.
42:03
I mean, we're always evolving, right? Social media is always evolving. So I think it's really important to look at well, what's best practice right now? What should I be doing? How many times should I be posting? What should I be talking about? All of those sorts of things. But one other thing, even though this toolkit that I've got is so low cost, if you come to the masterclass you will get a little cheeky code that then will give you even more of a discount. So I'm hooking you in guys, I'm nailing that, that fishing line out, see if I get any bites. But yeah, if you come along yet, oh, I'm more than happy to share a discount with you. Even though it's is low cost, but it will be filled with lots of tips that you can just take away and stay there.
42:48
And that is what like when I created the Regional Business zones membership and getting guest experts in and any master classes that I present every month to, it's not just like, giving you information, it's like and here are the action steps. This is what you can do to implement this into your business to get results straightaway. And so it's jam packed full of value in the individual master classes, but then you stack all of that together. And that's where, you know, we can really help you to transform your business to grow your business. And, you know, get that fair exchange for all the time and energy and effort that people are putting in that you're actually getting in revenue and sales. So yeah, so really excited and grateful that you are joining us this month inside the membership. So if you're listening along and you want to join, like I said, doors are opening, so come in and and join us for that. I'll link everything in the show notes. But thank you so much Marie, today's episode has been great. I've loved chatting with you, your beautiful big smiling face has been so great. Um, and yeah. Is there anything else you want to leave us with today? I'm
44:04
not really but I like we hear this term all the time, be social on social and it is it is so important. And I also just think there is so much information out there like heard and contradicting views as well like, what do you do versus who you don't listen to? Or told me to do this? Is that true? Like what's going on? So be really mindful of that I won't talk about anything unless I know it's come from Instagram. And it's for it's from a very reputable source. So just always be thinking about those sorts of things. But at the end of the day, when I went to uni 20 Something plus years ago and studied marketing, those principles that they taught us they are still relevant today. They are still super relevant today. It's just we're expressing them differently using social media
44:59
a different way method of presentation, right? Yeah,
45:01
absolutely. That's right. Yeah.
45:03
Amazing. All right. Well, thank you again. And thanks, everyone for tuning in for today's episode of the podcast. We'll be back again next week with a new episode. Thank you so much for tuning in to this episode of The she's in business podcast. Make sure you hit follow so that you are the first to know as soon as a new episode drops. And if you really want to deliver me smiles, send me a DM find me on Instagram at Donna Han underscore coach, and tell me what you loved most about this episode. Also, feel free to let me know what topics you need to learn more about if you are a regional businesswoman, ready to rise and soar towards success. I'll see you back here next week for another episode.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
